Parahita is a system of astronomy prevalent in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

and

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It was introduced by the Kerala astronomer Haridatta, (c. 683 AD). Nilakantha Somayaji (1444–1544), in his ''Dr̥kkaraṇa'', relates how Parahita was created based on the combined observations of a group of scholars who had gathered for a festival at Tirunāvāy on the banks of the Bhāratappuzha River. The

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

etymology literally means "for the benefit of the common man", and the intention was to simplify astronomical computations so that everyone could do it. Parahita is a significant step in the simplification of the siddhantic tradition. Of the two texts of the system, ''Grahacāranibandhana'' and ''Mahāmārganibandhana'', only the former is known. The system simplified the computational cycle of the

Aryabhatiya ''Aryabhatiya'' (IAST: ') or ''Aryabhatiyam'' ('), a Sanskrit astronomical treatise, is the ''magnum opus'' and only known surviving work of the 5th century Indian mathematician Aryabhata. Philosopher of astronomy Roger Billard estimates that th ...

by introducing a sub-aeon of 576 years and introduced a zero correction called ''Vāgbhāva'' based on which the system worked accurately around the time of Haridatta. p. 1059-60 Also Haridatta simplified the representation of numerals from the cumbersome notation of Aryabhata to the

katapayadi ''Kaṭapayādi'' system (Devanagari: कटपयादि, also known as ''Paralppēru'', Malayalam: :ml:പരല്‍പ്പേര്, പരല്‍പ്പേര്) of numerical notation is an ancient Indian alphasyllabic numeral s ...

system which gained wide currency in later

Kerala mathematics The Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics or the Kerala school was a school of mathematics and astronomy founded by Madhava of Sangamagrama in Tirur, Malappuram, Kerala, India, which included among its members: Parameshvara, Neelakanta Som ...

. In the katapayadi system, numerals may be represented by various letters so that the large numerical tables required for astronomical computations could be represented as verses and memorized. The work ''Grahacāranibandhana-sangraha'' (932 AD) gives further details of the parahita technique. The methods were retained but some of the constants downgraded by

Parameshvara Vatasseri Parameshvara Nambudiri ( 1380–1460) was a major Indian mathematician and astronomer of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics founded by Madhava of Sangamagrama. He was also an astrologer. Parameshvara was a proponent of ob ...

in his DrggaNita (1483), and also by Achyuta Pisharati in his ''rAsigolasphuTanIti'' (1600).

References

{{reflist Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics Hindu astronomy History of Kerala

See also

References